2 replies to this topic

[agedstudent]

This may be a silly question to many, but it keeps on popping into my mind. Would be obliged if someone can help me. The question is : Since we always have to dig into deep grounds to find acheological artifacts, does it mean that our ancestors lived at a deeper level than we are now? Would our future generations,say thousands of year from now will live on a level on earth much higher than we're living now? Is the diameter of our globe increasing all the time?

[Lacrymosa]

No. I think the reason we need to dig for artifacts is that none left on the surface of the ground. If you drop a vase on street, it will be gone in no time. The only ancient artifacts that still exist were either buried by people (e.g. graves) or by nature (e.g. volcano erruption, etc). For fossils, the first step to form a fossil is to have the corpse buried, if not, the corpse will be gone very fast. A large portion of fossils were formed because the animals died from sinking into mud pools, quicksand, etc. In time, mud, dirt, sand and other sediments will become hard and form rocks. New sediments will cover the old rock layers and eventually become rocks, etc. So the deeper the rock layer, the more ancient the fossils we will find. This process does not always happen though. Sediments may erode or carried away by wind, river, etc. We can never find a place on earth that has fossils from all time stack on top the other.

Edited by Lacrymosa, 13 August 2009 - 01:06 PM.

[agedstudent]

No. I think the reason we need to dig for artifacts is that none left on the surface of the ground. If you drop a vase on street, it will be gone in no time. The only ancient artifacts that still exist were either buried by people (e.g. graves) or by nature (e.g. volcano erruption, etc). For fossils, the first step to form a fossil is to have the corpse buried, if not, the corpse will be gone very fast. A large portion of fossils were formed because the animals died from sinking into mud pools, quicksand, etc. In time, mud, dirt, sand and other sediments will become hard and form rocks. New sediments will cover the old rock layers and eventually become rocks, etc. So the deeper the rock layer, the more ancient the fossils we will find. This process does not always happen though. Sediments may erode or carried away by wind, river, etc. We can never find a place on earth that has fossils from all time stack on top the other.

Thanks. But how about ancient sites of villages or even cities? When we found them they appeared to have been built at a stratum much lower than to-day's level.

Agedstudent